The most helpful favourable review

The most helpful critical review

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 starsBuild High For Happiness!
"Welcome to Paradise Towers, which will be your new home for a good few years to come. Some of you will understandably feel nervous at leaving everything you know for a strange new environment. However, we believe once you've tasted the Paradise Towers experience you won't want to change it for any other. Our motto is Build High For Happiness." --prospectus of...

2.0 out of 5 stars"Nothing is as it appears.Like me ." --The Doctor
I wont bore anyone with the plot. This is just plain silly and bad. Typical of the Sylvester McCoy era. BAD BAD BAD writing. McCoy ofcourse puts in a great performance in a silly story. Ashame the show had no budget at this time to hire decent writers.

"Welcome to Paradise Towers, which will be your new home for a good few years to come. Some of you will understandably feel nervous at leaving everything you know for a strange new environment. However, we believe once you've tasted the Paradise Towers experience you won't want to change it for any other. Our motto is Build High For Happiness." --prospectus of Paradise Towers. Additional prospectus follows:Ground level: the main materials for this story is J.G. Ballard's High Rise, with supporting structures Monty Python's Architect Sketch, Lord of the Flies, and A Clockwork Orange. However, include a wandering Time Lord and his red-haired companion Mel, the former who wants to explore, the latter who wants to enjoy the swimming pool at the top of the 304 story building, only to find the Towers littered and graffitied.Level 42: Now, meet the Kangs, Red Kangs, who are a gang of crossbow wielding, graffiti-spraying girls in red outfits and rinsed red hair, led by Bin Liner and Fire Escape, who take to the Doctor's "ice hot" clothes, but not to Mel. And to stir things up a bit later, some Blue Kangs, who are a gang of crossbow-wielding, graffiti-spraying girls in blue outfits and... you get the idea. Unfortunately, we only see one Yellow Kang, who like many others in this story, become, in a phrase used by the Kangs, "taken to the cleaners" or "made unalive." Some of their lingo seems taken from Orwell's Newspeak from 1984.Level 68: Here, we have the Caretakers, the authority wearing Fascist Germany-style grey uniforms who are after the "wall scrawlers" or Kangs. Their officious bureaucratic-ness will make the most hidebound Dickensian clerk blush with shame. However, some of the Caretakers are being "made unalive" as well. And observe their funny salute, hands held under noses and the chant "All hail the Great Architect!" Very Pythonish, yes? Oh, there is a Chief Caretaker who does have a funny mustache akin to the leader of the Third Reich, and a hidden agenda of his own.Level 100: The Rezzies or Residents who appear here are elderly, and seem overly kind and generous with tea and cakes, such as Tilda and Tabby, but beware their other eating habits. When Maddy tells of a Caretaker's disappearance and says "There's always something left behind," Tabby surreptitiously covers her full plate with her napkin. Hmmm...Level 125: This is Pex, a self-appointed "musclebrain" who "is here to set Paradise Towers to rights" and is eager to help Mel find the Doctor, while at the same time hiding a dark secret, for which the Kangs have a taunting nickname for him. However, he is useful at breaking doors down.Level 205: Three special appearances here: Richard Briers (Good Neighbors) does a job as the Chief Caretaker, who's quite a psychotic maniac. Judy Cornwell (Maddy) is best known as Hyacinth's sister Daisy in Keeping Up Appearances. Elizabeth Spriggs (Tabby) would later appear as the Fat Lady in the first Harry Potter movie.Level 244: Extra "ice-hot" performances: Annabel Yuresha (Bin Liner), Julie Brennon (Fire Escape), and Catherine Cusack (Blue Kang Leader, named Drinking Fountain in the novelization), who is the youngest daughter of Irish actor Cyril Cusack. All are attractive young ladies who add life to and are the best things in this story and have lots of fun with the Doctor.Level 304: Despite having a closeted studio setting, and its criticism of adopting a more stagey pantomime style, the lighting is good, and indicate a new style for Doctor Who. Enjoying the Doctor dancing with the Red Kangs in Episode 1 depends upon how light a mood one is in. We hope this ice hot video will make you unsad. Thank you, and Build High For Happiness.

I love this film. It is really neat that the people in Paradise Towers have lived there all of their lives. With acceptions to the elderly people; who used to live on earth, all of them are being ruled by an Villianous evil robot that lives at the bottom of the building.It is up to the Doctor to destroy the evil robot that rules the tower. The robot has so many enemies around, especially those garbage collecting machines, that roam around killing people.There is even three girl gangs that themsleves "Kangs". There is the red, blue and yellow. The yellow Kangs were killed off by the Villian's army, so the only Kangs left are the red and blues. They both hlep to destroy the Villian and save Paradies Towers, before they all die.This video is pure fun, and is a must have for all, Sylvestor McCoy fans. I love his sidekick, she is so cool. You've got to have this one!

This is the best episode of Dr. Who ever made. It's a bit silly and weird, but is so much fun to watch. Before I saw this episode, I had never really cared for Dr. Who all that much. Whenever my brother watched it I would halfheartedly watch it just to keep him company, but I became a fan after viewing this episode. This is a good episode for viewers new to Dr. Who to watch because it is easy to understand and it doesn't take itself too seriously. Plus, it has a cool 80's feel that is impossible not to love. Before you give up on Dr. Who, try Paradise Towers.

Watching this takes me back to high school when it first aired. Sure the story is goofy as is the acting, but it is fun entertainment. The New doctor series goes from the FIRST Episode "Time and the Rani" which is a serious story to this lighthearted and silly one which explores more of the NEW doctors personality. There is a darkside though... Watch out for old ladies drinking tea...

I wont bore anyone with the plot. This is just plain silly and bad. Typical of the Sylvester McCoy era. BAD BAD BAD writing. McCoy ofcourse puts in a great performance in a silly story. Ashame the show had no budget at this time to hire decent writers.

Paradise Towers is the 2nd serial of Doctor Who's 24th season, and while the opener Time and the Rani feels like a hangover from Colin Baker's time in the TARDIS, Paradise Towers represents a statement of intent from new script editor Andrew Cartmel, showcasing the direction in which he wanted to take the show.

The Doctor and Mel, in search of a bit of R&R, land in Paradise Towers, a formerly luxurious tower block which has fallen into chaos and disrepair. While Mel searches out the fabled swimming pool at the top of the towers, the Doctor becomes embroiled in a gang war between the childish Kangs, the residents of the block (or Rezzies) and the building's caretakers. Meanwhile, the building's architect, Kroagnon, festers as a disembodied entity in the basement, hungry for revenge.

The Towers themselves are very well designed (considering the BBC budget) and I absolutely love the sinister cleaning robots. A great design for an evil robot. The music (as usual with a score by Keff McCulloch) leaves a lot to be desired, being OTT and brash, but you can kind of tune it out.

People often criticise the script, but what a lot of people are missing is that it's a dark comedy. Come on! Cannibal residents, caretakers so strictly bound by a rule book they allow a prisoner to walk right out of a guard room, a hilariously pathetic "strong man". People who take their Doctor Who too seriously can cringe all they like. This is the makers of the show having a ball, something that hasn't been in evidence since back in Tom Baker's day.

The regular cast are all on fine form here. Sylvestor McCoy puts in a performance that shows he is getting to grips with his character after Time and the Rani's post-regenerative buffoonery. Bonnie Langford is decent as Mel, too. She gets a lot of stick for her performance, but at least she's not a moaner like Peri and Tegan. She gets stuck in, even though she pitches her performance a little too CBBC.

Some of the guest cast, admittedly, bring down the story a bit for me. The Kangs are pretty annoying and all the stories of Richard Briers' bring hammy and chewing the scenery are sadly all too true.

However, Paradise Towers shows a lot of promise. Andrew Cartmel really reinvigorated the program during his run as script editor, darkening the tone and adding some mystery back to the Doctor. If you'd like to see where it all started, Paradise Towers is the story for you. Build high for happiness!

Not even Richard Briers can help it meander to any point of redemption.Terrible acting.It is plagued with the overtly pretentious and ludicrous writing that followed much of McCoy's era. (Excluding "Remembrance")Impossible to watch without fast forward and cringing.Maybe, just maybe I will consider 2 small scenes with the caretakers as slightly enjoyable. But after weighed against:The cannibal residents, the Kangs, the cleaners, and pex... Avoid.It is my least favorite, on all merits, of the entire run of Dr. Who.

The highlight of this Dr. Who story for me was the wonderfully comic perfomance of Richard Briers as the Chief Caretaker. He is perhaps best known to us as being a member of Monty Python, but I will always think of him as Tom Good from the Brit-Com "Good Neighbors" (a.k.a. The Good Life).(The title of my review is from an episode of that show BTW.) In fact the acting overall in this one is very good. Another brit-com celebrity, Judy Cornwall who played Daisy in "Keeping Up Apperances" , also makes an apperance. The story, while entertaining, is a bit silly however. People being chased around by big lumbering mechanical cleaners is just a little far-fetched. I'd give it an extra half or maybe even 3 quarters, but we can't do that. I also did an earlier review of "Dragonfire" which I gave 4 stars and said it was the best of Season 24 and I must be consistant, mustn't I?

The highlight of this Dr. Who story for me was the wonderfully comic perfomance of Richard Briers as the Chief Caretaker. He is perhaps best known to us as being a member of Monty Python, but I will always think of him as Tom Good from the Brit-Com "Good Neighbors" (a.k.a. The Good Life).(The title of my review is from an episode of that show BTW.) In fact the acting overall in this one is very good. Another brit-com celebrity, Judy Cornwall who played Daisy in "Keeping Up Apperances" , also makes an apperance. The story, while entertaining, is a bit silly however. People being chased around by big lumbering mechanical cleaners is just a little far-fetched. I'd give it an extra half or maybe even 3 quarters, but we can't do that. I also did an earlier review of "Dragonfire" which I gave 4 stars and said it was the best of Season 24 and I must be consistant, mustn't I?